The Miz roasted James Harden’s playoff performances during interview on Clippers’ broadcast

It’s unusual to see a celebrity interviewed on a particular team’s broadcast take a shot at a player on that team. That’s what happened with an in-game interview of WWE wrestler Michael Gregory Mizanin (“The Miz”) on the FanDuel Sports Network SoCal broadcast of the Los Angeles Clippers’ game against the Atlanta Hawks Saturday night, though. (He was there to promote a WWE show at the stadium Monday.) Reporter Lauren Rosen asked him which member of the Clippers would make the best WWE wrestler, and he said “James Harden, just not in the playoffs”:

Lauren Rosen asked The Miz which Clipper would make the best WWE wrestler. He replied "James Harden, but not in the playoffs." That drew a "Come on" from Rosen, and an eventual "Lauren…thank you" from play-by-play voice Brian Sieman and an "I guess" from analyst Jim Jackson. pic.twitter.com/x4MiOjaM1F

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 5, 2025

Rosen’s “Come on” of disbelief is great there. Mizanin then adds “Regular-season James Harden is definitely the WWE Superstar there.” Rosen says “I’d trust him all season long, if I were you. But I do think he’d be great, I think he’d be fabulous. The brand, the beard, it’s all there.” Mizanin agrees “It is, it’s all there.” The “Lauren…thank you” from play-by-play voice Brian Sieman and “I guess” from analyst Jim Jackson is hilarious, too.

Is Harden actually bad in the playoffs, though? As per StatMuse, he has an overall 87-79 playoff record. Last season was his first with the Clippers, though, and as the fourth seed in the Western Conference, they lost in six games to the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks. Harden’s points per game actually rose from 16.6 in the regular season to 21.2 in the postseason there, and his field goal percentage rose from 42.8 percent to 44.9 percent, so that loss wasn’t all on him.

During the whole 16-season run of Harden’s career to date, his playoff averages (22.7 PPG on 42.5 percent shooting) are a bit lower than his regular-season numbers (24.1 points on 44.0 percent shooting). But that’s true for a lot of players with the tougher competition in the playoffs. And while there’s a bit of narrative about “playoffs Harden” because his teams haven’t won a championship, that’s often not been entirely about him, as some of those arguing against that narrative have noted.

At any rate, though, it is quite funny to have The Miz roasting Harden’s playoff performances. And it’s more amusing still that that took place during an interview on the Clippers’ own broadcast.

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